Last season was a bit of an adjustment period for junior college transfer Cornelius Carradine as he grew accustomed to Division 1 football.

The 6-foot-5, 265-pound defensive end didn't record a sack or tackles for loss in the first three games of his Florida State career, but as the year went on he grew more productive with every passing Saturday.

He finished third on the team with 5.5 sacks and recorded eight tackles for loss, including at least one in each of FSU's last three games.

"It was a big learning process because I had everything from Butler (Community College) stuck in my head just from being there for two years just learning the system there," Carradine said of last season. "Then coming to Florida State and learning a whole new system, it took about a year. During the season I started catching on to everything and everything started to fall into place."

In addition to his sacks and tackles for loss Carradine finished 2011 with 38 tackles, 24 of which were solo as he played in a reserve role behind Brandon Jenkins.

Carradine said of the things he did to pick up the Seminoles' defensive scheme better was to watch Jenkins and fellow defensive end Bjoern Werner on film to study what they did in certain situations.

Now going into his second spring in Tallahassee, Carradine said he feels much more comfortable in FSU's defensive scheme, but now he wants to feel comfortable with not just his role but the defense as a whole.

"Just getting more involved with the players," he said of his goal for the spring. "Just knowing not only my job but what everybody else does. Just being able to come out there and compete and go get the job done."

A better understanding of the principles of defensive coordinator Mark Stoops' system is what head coach Jimbo Fisher is looking for out of Carradine as well.

"Keep growing and his development as a player, as a leader," Fisher said of what he wants out of the rising senior. "Become a much better knowledge guy of what we're doing defensively and how to transition from run to pass. I think that's always guys' first big adjustment. You get in those pass down or rush down and people are really play action and doing things like that, transition from rush to pass and seeing it and recognizing it. But all the rest of it, boy, he plays hard and he's a good football player."

Moody free to let loose in the weight room

In addition to perhaps more contact, the thing that Nick Moody has enjoyed most about his switch from safety to linebacker is the fact that he is finally free to let loose in the weight room.

"I like working out more now because I can actually do everything," he said. "I wouldn't go as heavy as I could (before). I kind of liked stayed at the same (weight). I didn't lift real heavy squats or real heavy bench."

Now that he's been able to lift harder Moody is up to 243 pounds of solid muscle, a gain of 13 pounds from the start of last season.

The ability to have free reign in the weight room was not the motivating factor behind his switch to outside linebacker.

He said he and the coaches just had one short conversation about the move and it seemed to be the best thing for his NFL prospects and the Seminoles' defense.

"There wasn't much of a conversation," he said. "It was just that (linebacker) would be my better fit for me at the next level and then (Terrence) Brooks moving to free safety, all that is going to do is help our defense even more."

Moody said on the first day of practice his new position didn't feel as natural to him, but by day two he felt he had adjusted fully.

"I'm starting to feel comfortable," he said. "The first day it felt kind of awkward, getting used to shuffling as much and having to stay so low. But I felt comfortable on (Wednesday)."

The rising senior is currently working with the first team defense at the strongside outside linebacker position. Right now he currently is just focused on learning his responsibilities there but after he get those down he plans to cross-train at the other two linebacker spots like the rest of his segment.

"As I learn all of that then I'll go ahead and learn the other two," he said of strongside linebacker. "A lot of stuff relates and you can kind of figure out what you're supposed to do based off of what everybody else does."